Question

Sojourner Truth bt Joanna Evans
Both Rebecca's father and Sojourner Truth are influential in the play, but neither of them appears. In 3 sentences, draw conclusions about why the playwright did not include these characters in the play's action.

Answer 1

By keeping both Rebecca’s father and Sojourner Truth offstage, the playwright makes their authority and legacy felt indirectly through other characters’ memories and reactions, which preserves their symbolic weight without letting them dominate the immediate drama. Their absence also focuses the play on present relationships and choices, forcing characters to wrestle with the consequences of those absent figures and inviting the audience to infer significance rather than being shown it directly. Finally, portraying them as offstage presences preserves ambiguity and mythic stature—Sojourner Truth as a larger-than-life moral touchstone and Rebecca’s father as a shaping absence—so the play can explore identity and power through absence as much as action.